December 30, 2024 Monday--5am

Good morning!

I hope you all had a good holiday.  Best laid plans over here.  Leah woke up sick (sore throat and low temp) and I was having a kind of bad IBS day, anyways...so our Christmas was postponed until later.  Most likely will wait until after the appliances are delivered on the 2nd.  I was very happy it was a white Christmas, though!

Was strange and foggy for days and the trees were all frosted white, too.

The one larger Christmas cactus bud that survived the zero degrees transport day...

...bloomed!!  It is just beautiful!

Since Christmas it has been in the 30s to even 41 degrees and the snow has been melting away.  In fact, there's nothing left now but the snowbanks outside my windows.  This picture was from a couple days ago when there was still some snow by my patio.

I've been busy cooking & baking and writing letters.  Set up January in the new bullet journal for 2025.  Addressed all the birthday card envelopes for 2025.  Oh, and Keanna came last Monday before Christmas Eve.  I scrubbed down the stove top, cleaned the little humidifier (which entails a lot of chopping crud off the heating unit--lol!), cleaned & filled nine fountain pens, watched It's a Wonderful Life & A Christmas Story, and watched quite a bit of Vloggers & British TV.  :)  

Dagan has been here briefly twice.  He dropped off Christmas ham dinner for me Christmas night.  He popped in to drop off the crock pot on Saturday afternoon...caught Allie and I both napping--lol!  He replaced the battery in the hall smoke alarm and it is not blinking anymore.  Hurray!  And he brought in more bird seed for me.  Even though since it has been so warm out there the birds aren't here as much the past several days, I am all set for helping them out when the cold weather returns. ;)

Was pretty quiet around here.  It was a lovely Christmas.  Got pics and videos from Leah.  I see she was fascinated by the frosty trees, too.

McFamily went driving around to look at the lights on people's houses.  Seems many had a color scheme this year.

There are still houses that have a yard full of holiday spirit--lol!

How did they get the many, many lights so evenly distributed on these people's front tree?  Gorgeous!

I loved this picture of the boys hugging Aaron.  They do love their Uncle Aaron.  He lived with them for several years.

Christmas morning the boys dug into their stockings right away.  They each got a small Lego set and that was what they stopped to put together.  Not even concerned about the presents under the tree--lol!

A foggy white Christmas it was.

Finally opened all the gifts under the tree.

They tried to explain to me on the phone the battling tops toy they got from Aaron.

Leah sent a video for me.  Goodness!  I can see why they like it so much.

This is a music box from Leah's sister that they had to construct!  Fascinating!

Hidden down in my empty apartment was the gift to the boys from Dagan's dad and his wife.  An air hockey table!

The boys had quite the Christmas this year!

They made a trip to the big Scheels store, too, at some point.  I don't think they can go there and not climb on that gigantic Adirondak chair--LOL!

This was the first time Liam felt brave enough to ride the big ferris wheel with Ian.  At the very top...

...coming down.  So exciting!

Ian always climbs up these walls--lol!

I don't know what you'd call that area...a jungle gym of sorts?

Anyways, we'll have our Christmas later on like we have done all these years.  Wasn't meant to be this year after all.  That's okay.  I'll be there on the actual days next year.

In two days it will be 2025!  My New Year's Eve stuff for my ceremony I usually do is still packed away somewhere this year, too.  Next year I will do my burning bowl and pick an angel card and all that.  But I have been thinking of maybe picking a word for the year.  What keeps coming to me is "change"...so I might stick with that.  I'm not used to picking my own word of the year.  My angel cards do have them, I guess--but that is an entirely different way of "picking"--lol! 

Leah is not feeling better.  All the holiday stuff going on hasn't helped matters, I'm sure.  I hope she gets some rest this week.  She's back to work with only Wednesday off.  Another reason why waiting until after the appliances are delivered is a good idea.  No hurry.  The boys have new things to play with and we are used to celebrating later...some years into the middle of January--lol!  

Anyways, that's about it from here till next time.  Happy New Year from me and Miss Allie!!  :) :)

December 23, 2024 Monday--5am

Good morning!

You can see Allie's in her favorite spot to observe the Critter Cafe.

It's been very cold and the critters have been very hungry.

I had ordered a garland to have a little decoration (that could possibly stay up all winter-lol!).  It was cold to the touch when it arrived.  Had trouble getting it unraveled and laid it down on the carpet to let it warm up a bit more before I messed with it.  Much to my surprise Miss "I-will-only-lie-on-a-couple-specific-folded-up-blankets...refused-to-even-stand-in-two-new-cat-beds...will-not-be-caught-dead-in-the-confines-of-a-box...took-over-a-year-before-I-decided-the-carrier-hidden-in-the-corner-of-the-studio-made-a-good-warm-hidey-hole" Allie immediately laid on the plastic, prickly garland!!??  

She was totally enthralled with it.  

Eventually left to eat and drink, but returned. 

I had even thought I'd leave it down there for her for a few days.  But the next morning I discovered she had been trying to eat the leaves!  Stinker!

Well, it was a week of making food, doing laundry, and making appointments.  I already had the dentist lined up on January 2nd and my annual wellness check on January 8th.  But I realized there was nothing set up for my cancer check-ups??  Should have been in December (but I sure don't mind waiting till after the holidays--lol!).  Can't remember exactly why I had no appointments because they are usually set up before I even leave the clinic.  Computers down or something?  Anyways, now I need to get labwork done on January 17th, have my CT Scans on the 24th, and see my oncologist on January 31st.

Going to be a busy month.  It's been so very nice to have a few months with not having appointments every time I turned around.  Even got the new eye doctor and new glasses taken care of.  So, after January I should be set for a while.  :)

Anyways, naughty leaf-chewing Allie had her garland taken away from her.  It is now under the TV.  Happened to catch the photo of the first time I held Liam when he came home from the hospital over seven years ago.  Ian wanted to sit with Gramma, too.  How time flies!

Oh, and I moved the small folding table away from next to the TV cabinet.  One advantage to having a "fluffy" cat is she can't jump very high, so the garland is safe--ROFL! ;)

Friday--Janie sent me a Christmas cactus!  Wow!  Thanks so much!  I have had a couple of them over my lifetime but never once had any blooms. If this one survives the freezing transport, I am hopeful. :)

More cards have arrived.  I had automatically removed any that had family photos on them last time because...well, without permission and all that.  But you can't see them that well so I left them on this time.  Sorry if you thought I hadn't gotten your cards.

 Finally...photos from Leah.  

They went to a Christmas concert.  (Leah's sister, Michal, is a music teacher.)  

Blogger is messing with my photos, BTW.  Won't let me put them where I want them.  And I've been trying to upload a video for half an hour.  Grrr!  Oh well.

Here's Liam and the snowman.  I know this snowman is from some movie but I don't know which one or what its name is--lol!  I'm sure one of you will be able to tell me.

They've driven by this tree in town the past few years.  This year it also had Santa's sleigh in front of it, so they stopped to get a closer look.

Very cold smiles--lol!

Imagination and an empty sleigh.  Liam was getting pretty cold at the end, but this is what the boys are like.  Quite inventive.  Keep you on your toes--lol!

Across from the giant tree another set of businesses have a giant ornament all lit up.

We had snowstorming with high winds for a couple of days.  Enough to cover the ground all bright and clean again.  For those of you who have not lived around snow...

I am not sure this will work at all.  Blogger is in quite the mood today.  You can try this link...driving, snow plows, and a round about.  If that doesn't work, I am out of ideas.  Blogger wins.

Now this is how you keep warm when you are going out to help shovel the driveway!  That's Liam--lol!

Friday--was a busy day.  I was getting texts and pictures from Leah in the morning.  She and Dagan were at Rigels buying the appliances for the apartment!  I got to make some final picks.  This may not be all that exciting to most of you but this was thrilling for me--ROFL!  

Microwave.

Skinny one that will go over my kitchen sink instead of over a stove.

Side-by-side frig/freezer that even has water and ice in the door!

So fancy!  

The washer and dryer that will go underneath the stairs in the maintenance room.  Of course they will go side by side and not be stacked. :)

Dryer.

Washer.

Blogger wants the dishwasher over here, I guess.  

Will have three levels!  

I can put utensils or anything flat up on that top skinny tray!  Awesome!

And when are they coming, you may ask?  January 2nd!!  The day I go to the dentist.  Dagan will be at home and Leah will bring me to the dentist.  Maybe if my back is feeling decent enough, I might go over and see them all for myself after the dentist chair is done with me.  :)

When they were out shopping they found a little shop that actually had a section of delicious treats that were sugar free!!  Leah bought some that we can have for Christmas!

And--YES--I am going over to spend time with them on Christmas Day!!  First time ever to be there on the actual holiday!  There are even stockings for Allie and Blink below.

Oh, I almost forgot.  A question.  As of Saturday, I've had a green blinking smoke alarm (only one out of the three) but no beeping.  I googled it and it said it could be "normal" depending on the model or mean the battery is going dead or that something is wrong with it.  Well, it is not normal.  Haven't ever seen it in the ten years I've lived here.  I've had the alarm beeping a couple of times because I waited too long to change the batteries, but never saw a green flashing light in the hallway or on either of the other two smoke alarms.  

Since there's no beeping...so far...there's been no rush to change the batteries, but Dagan or Leah will come over and do that for me sometime soon.  (Me up on a high ladder isn't the best idea--lol!)  Hopefully that will solve the issue.  Always something, eh?  Just wanted to ask--have any of you had flashing lights on your still silent smoke alarms?  I'd never heard of it before.

 Well, that's about it from here.  To all of you who celebrate over this holiday season...have a marvelously good time!  We should have a white Christmas here after our snowstorm days.  Supposed to stay cold enough, so I will be quite happy about that.  A white Christmas!!  

I am grateful for each and every one of you.  Lurkers included.  :)  Bless you!  Be well.  Be happy.  May 2025 be a surprisingly wonderful year on many levels.  Let optimism prevail!  Till next week...